Series: Healthy Foundations

Before in the Old Testament people had to sacrifice lambs, and go to alters, and go to Priests, and do these things in order to make an atonement for their sin. God sent His son, Jesus, to die in our place. A perfect, pure sacrifice so we don't have to keep sacrificing. His blood is so powerful it covers all your sins of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And not just your sins but every other person in the world who ever was, is now, and will be to come. That is how powerful the blood of Christ is!

Have you ever had any moments in your life, moments in your faith, where maybe you've doubted your salvation? You've doubted whether or not you're going to heaven when you die, whether there is life or death? Have you ever wanted a little extra assurance that you're going to go to heaven when you die? That's the first question. And the second question is like it. Are you overburdened and do you ever have moments in your life where you look at the world around you and you think to yourself, "Man, it is just too much! There's just too much going on around me." Does it feel like the world is just too much? John talks about that in this passage. In this sermon we will talk about overcoming the world and we will talk about assurance in our faith, assurance in our salvation.

Love Reveals Reality. Is it possible to love in an... read more

The word "Love" is used 13 times in this passage. In every occurrence what Greek word do you think is used for the word "love"? Phileo? Eros? No. Agape. Agape is used in every instance in this text. Even in addressing them he uses the word "beloved." This word means, "dearly loved". In other words, just in how they're addressed John's saying you are dearly loved brothers and sisters. "Dearly loved - Listen to what I say about love." What if we saw Christians from other churches as dearly loved. Not saying, "oh they're from the other church." But rather, "They are dearly loved children of God." Do we talk about our brothers and sisters like that? Other words that can describe this are cherished or admired. We should see each other just like that.

The Word "Test" literally means to examine or prove. It's literally this idea "to weigh." We're going to test it and know it to be true. Did you know it's all of our responsibility to know the Gospel is being preached? Not just the preacher. We have to PROVE it and know our faith has some real reasons behind it. The Bible teaches us it's our job to test it. To weigh it out. Here's why this is important. This world is inhabited by The Evil One. The Evil One is the Father of lies. That's what Jesus says about the Evil One.

Remember when you went to your room and you slammed the door (gently because you didn't want your parents to get made). Or you screamed in to your pillow. You were ANGRY! Well what was making you mad? Well it was that brother of mine! I had two brothers. They made me angry all the time! But why was I really angry? It's really interesting that God asks the question, "Why are your angry?" But we respond by saying, "I'll tell you WHO made me angry. And that person has a face and a name." So who is it? "Well it's that husband of mine..." or "It's that wife of mine..." or "It's that brother in law of mine..." So who is it? And why are they making you angry? God's calling attention tot he WHY, not the who or the what. Because anger is a secondary emotion. There's something else going on.

There are all kinds of words we can use to describe us. There are a lot of words that we THINK define us that are negative words. Undoubtedly, there are plenty of people who have allowed for these kinds of labels to be put on them. We are not the lump sum of the things that happen to us. We are not what other people have decided we are or aren't. We are not what people have said about us over the years, the discouraging words, that is not who we are! That is not our identity! Our identity is so far greater than any words or any labels that can be put on us because our identity does not come from people or the words of people. Our identity comes from Jesus Christ!

Jesus came to die for you. Abide in that. When we abide pressure seems to go away. Then you don't bring that pressure in to your relationships. You don't bring that pressure in to your work. Preachers don't bring the pressure in to their congregation to do, do, do. Jesus' yoke is easy. It's not about pressure.

God does not change. The world changes. And it's standards change. It'll constantly change. It'll constantly be trying to tell you and me what it means to be loving and kind and good. And we're told if we would just change and be more like the world we wouldn't have any problems any more. Don't believe it! It's a lie. You see the reality is Jesus came to save the world. And it's our job to preach the gospel so the whole world knows there's a God who loves them so much he put on flesh and He died for them!